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The Senator is scheduled to tell his South Carolina constituents his decision in a statewide telecast at 6:15 P.M.; Eastern standard time.

Mr. Thurmond was the 1948 States Rights party candidate for President in a protest campaign against President Truman. The then South Carolina Governor captured 39 electoral votes in Southern states.

In 1960 Mr. Thurmond supported Senator Lyndon B. Johnson for the Democratic Presidential nomination. But during the campaign he issued a blistering attack on the Democratic party platform and kept hands off the race.

His support of Mr. Goldwater will mark the fifth straight time since he came to national political prominence that he has not campaigned for the Democratic Presidential nominee. His party switch will be the first for a United States Senator since Wayne Morse of Oregon changed from the Republican party to independent status and then to the Democratic party 10 years ago.

Mr. Thurmond has repeatedly stressed in speeches his feeling of political independence, although he has been nominated to public office in state Democratic primaries.

There were strong indications here that he would introduce Senator Goldwater when the latter's Southern campaign reaches Greenville, in the. state's industrial Piedmont section, un Thursday.

Republicans have refused to say who will introduce Senator Goldwater. But the timing of Mr. Thurmond's television address—on the night before the Republican nominee arrives in the state—was considered significant.

The defection of the 61‐yearold junior, Senator from South Carolina gave the longtime Democratic state its hardest political shock since Mr. Thurmond won a write‐in campaign for the Senate in 1954 over the regular Democratic nominee, State Senator Edgar A. Brown. Word of Mr. Thurmond's decision spread rapidly over the state today. For several weeks he had been sounding out political friends on his move.

His switch in parties raised a question of the Senator's political future in South Carolina. Democratic primaries have been tantamount to general elections. Mr. Thurmond is up for reelection to the Senate in 1968 and presumably would run as a Republican.

Gov. Donald S. Russell, a Democrat, has been widely talked of as a potential Senatorial candidate. The situation now could lead to a contest in a general election between Mr. Thurmond and Governor Russell, rather than a primary battle.

The Republican state chairman, J. Drake Edens of Columbia, gave only a smiling “No comment” to questions about Mr. Thurmond's political switch. Newspaper advertisements announcing the Senator's statewide television speech were paid for by Mr. Edens, in the name of the state Republican party.

Mr. Thurmond has frequently praised Senator Goldwater. The Arizonan, in 1960, said in speeches in this state that Mr. Thurmond would he welcome in the Republican party.

In a speech in Spartanburg in 1960, Mr. Goldwater said there was not enough difference between Mr. Thurmond as a South Carolina. Democratic conservative and a Republican conservative “to put a piece of paper between them.

In recent months Mr Thurmond has been critical of the Democratic Administration for its defense policies and enactment of the Civil Rights Law.

Sources here said his television speech would include a strong attack against the Democratic party for the United States role in the war in South Vietnam and for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1962.

Mr. Thurmond has previously accused the Defense Department of a “no‐win policy.”

He was elected to the Senate in 1954 running as an independent Democrat. He was re‐ elected in 1960 against minor opposition in the Democratic primary and no opposition in the general election.

A much‐decorated hero during World War II, Mr, Thurmond is a major general in the Army Reservea. Mr. Goldwater has a similar rank in the Air Force Reserves.

Both Senators have opposed the Administration on such matters as civil rights, medical eare for the aged, the nuclear test ban treaty and the antipoverty program.

In the 1960 campaign Mr. Thurmond said the Democratic platform was “a blueprint for a welfare state and an end to individual liberty and dignity in the United States.”

A version of this archives appears in print on September 16, 1964, on Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: THURMOND TO BOLT DEMOCRATS TODAY; South Carolinian Will Join G.O.P. and Aid Goldwater—To Tell Plans on TV. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe